12 november 2005 | 2007
12th of November 2005 is an installation involving the simultaneous screening of two video documentations of two very different performances, both of which premiered the very same day in November 2005.
The two films are projected on either side of a single screen, offering the possibility to watch one or the other film and to change between the two. On one side, a documentation of Bühnenstück, a performance by C&H which premiered during the Plateaux Festival for Performing Arts in the Mousonturm, Frankfurt. On the other, The Sword by Segun Adefila and the Crown Troupe of Afrika, a piece which premiered in the Cultural Center Akwa Street in Abija, Nigeria.
Present during the screening, the 'makers' of the installation and the performers of Bühnenstück, bake traditional German breads or Pretzels. Busy around the oven some meters from the screen, they distribute the freshly baked Bretzels and are available for conversation from the beginning until the end of the projection.
At first glance, this double projection comments on the very different artistic modes that are current in different parts of the world, and on the way that works are documented differently in terms of content, form and style. More importantly however, the installation allows the viewer to reflect upon how a work communicates differently in different cultural contexts, and how a simultaneous viewing of two works provides another reading then if the same works are viewed individually.
12 November 2005, confronts a performance, made within a western art historical framework, with a performance created out of totally other codes and conventions. Rather than position one above the other, the spectator is invited to observe both with a relativising eye.
On a formal level, 12 noveber 2005 is also an attempt to modify cinema-going clichés, by placing them in the performance-situation of the theater hall. There is a doubling of the audience space (double cinema), wherein the presenters (projectionists) are present and available for discussion. All in an ambiance of the terrific smell of Bretzels (as opposed to pop-corn).
concept :
C&H
performance :
Heike Langsdorf, Christophe Meierhans, Christoph Ragg
thanks to :
Segun Adefila, The Crown Troupe of Afrika
support :
frogs OS, Kunst/Werk, Nadine, Artis/Den Bosch